* “You have seen the contagion. It’s the Tunisian contagion. It’s a good kind of contagion. I had no idea that Tunisia would alight this awakening.”–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
* “Usually, Arab rulers tolerate each other, no matter how idiotic they are, in order to survive. But the guy (Moammar Gadhafi) is insane, there’s no question about it. He’s unacceptable in every way.”–Saudi Arabian human rights activist Mohamed Qahtani.
* “Going forward, we’ll continue to seek ways to increase the independence of the Cuban people, who I believe are entitled to the same freedom and liberty as everyone else in this hemisphere. I will make this effort to try to break out of this history that’s now lasted for longer than I’ve been alive. But Cuban authorities must take some meaningful actions to respect the basic rights of their own people–not because the United States insists upon it, but because the people of Cuba deserve it, no less than the people of the United States or Chile or Brazil or any other country deserve it.”–President Barack Obama in a speech in Santiago, Chile.
* “But the country is doing so badly, I wish there was someone in the Republican field I thought would be incredible because that’s what we need right now. … Part of the beauty of me is that I’m very rich.”–Donald Trump on speculation that he might join the list of GOP presidential hopefuls.
* “Frankly, I think the governor was wrong on this. And that’s not just my opinion. That’s the opinion of folks in Tampa and Orlando, including a lot of Republicans up there.”–President Barack Obama commenting in Miami about Gov. Rick Scott’s rejection of $2.4 billion in federal funds to build the Orlando-to-Tampa high-speed rail line.
* “This idea of selling Florida as the cheapest state–well, that’s what we’ve got now. To drive it (costs) down at the expense of young people’s education is wrong. Florida is a beautiful place to live. But it is a fragile place, and we have to keep investing in the things that will retain that high quality of life.”–Former Gov. Bob Graham.
* “No one can comprehend why you’re (Florida) not moving rapidly forward with a prescription monitoring program. Given the deaths, given the threat to safety, it makes no sense.”–John Eadie, director of Brandeis University’s PMP (Prescription Monitoring Program) Center of Excellence.
* “We didn’t think Florida would be a profitable business for us (in 2011), but it is. We’re now making money here, so that emboldens us to move a little faster.”–S. Todd Maclin, CEO of commercial banking for JPMorgan Chase, which is opening 35 branches–10 in the Tampa Bay area–this year.
* “I wish they didn’t have this feeling of trying to remake the whole judiciary.”–Former Gov. Reubin Askew on House Speaker Dean Cannon’s proposal to overhaul the Florida Supreme Court.
* “Sunshine Laws do not anticipate the real-time free-flow of all this information on a constantly public forum.”–Scott Burgess, spokesman for Gov. Rick Scott.
* “The important thing when it comes to price is that Florida has returned to its norm of having home prices well below the national median. That means Florida is an affordable destination (again) to those who want to bail out of the Northeast and Midwest and move away from the snow.”–Mark Vitner, Wells Fargo senior economist.